[From Novice to Mid-Career Teacher] How Training in a Developing Country Changed My View of Education✨ | Awakening to International Understanding Education🏫 All Free

🏫 I am delivering the New Teacher Series.

⬇️ The article from two posts ago is here.

Having finished my first year as a teacher, I strongly wished to be a homeroom teacher in my second year.

However, what the principal told me was the unbelievable words, "Because you are a woman, you cannot be a homeroom teacher."


My hopes were denied based on my gender, age, and marital status, and I spent days crushed by frustration and a sense of powerlessness.

However, with the vow that "I will definitely be a homeroom teacher someday" in my heart, I stood back up.

⬇️ The previous article is here.

⬇️ Please check this magazine for articles about my career so far.

I will be serializing articles looking back on my career as I have spent 25 years in the teaching profession.

I would be happy if knowing how this connects to my current life as a freelancer after retiring from teaching could serve as a reference for your own career development✨

I will be updating at a pace of one article per week. The first five are free.

Now, the main content starts here.
This article is free, so I would be happy if you could read it to the end✨

🏫 An opportunity to go for training in a Southeast Asian country!

In the year I was assigned to my second school (a large school in an urban area) (this was over 15 years ago), an opportunity arrived. There was an announcement that an observation and training program in Southeast Asia would be held for teachers under 35.

It is a common occurrence in city schools, but the average age of the teachers was high, and I remember it being in their 50s. Naturally, there were only a few people in the school who were eligible.

Of course, it was aimed at all elementary, junior high, and high school teachers nationwide, so I think the quota for the prefecture was a narrow gate, but since I had already established my reckless, headlong personality by that time, I immediately wrote up and submitted the application documents, including my statement of purpose.

I still don't know why I was chosen, but miraculously, I was selected for the 10-person national quota✨

This training became the catalyst that greatly changed my view of education.

🏫 Meeting the 10 participants in Tokyo

The training was held during the long holiday in May. At my school, I was gossiped about by a male teacher in his 50s who said, 'Everyone else is working (coaching club activities), but he's going off to play.' I didn't care at all and headed to Tokyo, thinking, 'What are you talking about? I'm going there to study.' (Honestly, it was just people trying to drag each other down.)

I met colleagues from all over the country who were overflowing with a desire to actively learn about the world. Even now, I still keep in touch with two of the friends I made there.

We received an explanation about the training program from the coordinator, broke the ice at dinner, stayed overnight, and the next morning, we all flew out from Narita together.

🏫 A school without window glass

In Hokkaido, May is a time when ski resorts in Sapporo are sometimes still open, so I remember being surprised by the intensity of the sunlight and the stifling humidity when I landed in the host country.

The airport, hotel, and cars were all air-conditioned, to the point of being cold. Amidst that, we visited our first public high school. In the sweltering heat, many students were waiting in front of the entrance with a banner.

The banner said, 'Welcome, Japanese teachers.' I was deeply moved. We were guided to an air-conditioned room in the school, where the students performed traditional folk dances and gave speeches in English.

After that, each of the 10 members of our training group was escorted by a student who acted as a guide to show us around the school.

What I saw there were students packed into narrow classrooms without window glass, studying desperately. The student who guided me said in fluent English:

'Our school is a preparatory school where everyone aims to become a bureaucrat. Since there aren't enough classrooms, the students rotate between morning and afternoon shifts.'

I was surprised and asked, 'So, you can only study for half a day?' He replied, 'That's why we go to cram school. Our parents drive us to and from the cram school.'

🏫 A boy who spoke of his dream to build the country's infrastructure

I asked the student who was acting as my guide, and who was studying very hard, "What is your dream?"

The boy replied, "I want to go to Japan someday. I've heard that Japan's roads are wonderful, there's no trash on the side of the road, and everyone follows the rules. You don't hear the sound of car horns there, right?"

When I replied, "That's right. In this country, it's normal for cars to honk their horns while driving, but in Japan, if everyone follows the traffic rules, you almost never hear a horn,"

he said with a straight gaze, "I want to make this country a place with infrastructure and rules like Japan. To do that, I want to study abroad in Japan. And I want to become a high-ranking government official to make my country better."

I felt as if I had been struck by lightning.

Could I have thought of such things when I was a high school student? To want to make the country better. Instead of worrying about classrooms without window glass or being discouraged by unfortunate circumstances, could I have faced my dreams with a smile?

I commented with all my heart, "You will surely be able to make this country better. I hope you can build schools with glass in the windows where you can study all day, and build beautiful roads! I'm rooting for you!"

🏫 The boy who visited me at my hotel

After parting with the student guides, I had the experience of making fresh spring rolls in the school kitchen and interacted with the teachers. The kitchen was unsanitary and crude, but the teachers welcomed us so wholeheartedly that I didn't mind it at all.

When I asked, they told me that they couldn't live on their school salaries alone, so they worked at cram schools until late at night after classes ended.

I was speechless. I wondered why they could work so hard.

"Because the students are working hard. I believe they will make the country better in the future," the teachers said.

There was no sense of tragedy at all; everyone was smiling. They told me, 'We are so happy to meet teachers from Japan. We respect the Japanese people.'

🏫A surprise at the time of parting

When I finished the school visit schedule and was leaving the entrance, many students and teachers waved to see me off. I was deeply moved.

Then, the student who had been my guide ran up to me and asked, 'Teacher, which hotel are you staying at?' When I asked, 'Why?', he replied, 'I was able to talk to a Japanese teacher, so I want to thank you. There are some very delicious sweets, so after my cram school finishes, I want to go buy them with my parents and give them to you.'

I told him, 'You don't have to do that. Your feelings are enough,' but he wouldn't budge. 'My family will surely be happy that I was able to meet a Japanese teacher.' I was finally worn down by his persistence and told him the name of the hotel.

I thought it was probably just a polite gesture. A high school student wouldn't really come to a hotel with sweets, would they?

That's what I thought, but at night, I received a call from the front desk saying, 'A high school student is in the lobby and says he wants to see you.'

I hurried down to the lobby, and that boy was waiting with a box of sweets. 'It was after my cram school, so I'm late. These are sweets to thank you.'

When I said, 'Thank you! Please make your dreams come true,' he said, 'Yes,' jumped onto the back of his father's motorcycle waiting in front of the entrance, and rode away.

🏫This experience changed my view of education

As I watched the backs of the father and son riding away, I thought:

'I have to tell my students in Japan about this.'

How should I convey this? What should I convey? From that day I thought those things, my view of education began to change.

🏫Next time...

I would like to talk about how I started practicing international understanding education after returning to Japan from my training in a developing country.

Do you also have an experience that changed your life?

Thank you for reading until the end!